DOGE on the chopping block of the Trump-Musk feud

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is now the one on the chopping block in an ironic twist following the recent collapse of Trump and Musk’s friendship.

With Musk and Trump publicly losing patience with one another, the staff affiliated with their joint initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency, are left to brace for a broad range of impending repercussions.

DOGE on the chopping block of the Trump-Musk feud

U.S. President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s fallout has put the high-profile federal reform effort at the Department of Government Efficiency, previously led by Musk, in danger.

DOGE-affiliated staffers are currently grappling with what they’re calling “collateral damage” from the very public feud between Musk and Trump.

According to sources close to the matter, the DOGE employees were caught off guard by how quickly the Trump-Musk spat got out of hand. The staff were reportedly up late Thursday, texting themselves as the feud escalated. Many of them shared fears of being laid off or having the project quietly shelved.

The White House has so far maintained that DOGE’s achievements are “undisputed,” but the staff worries that the loss of Musk may signal the beginning of the end.

“I worry with Elon gone, no one will join, and it will just slowly fade away,” Sahil Lavingia, a former Department of Government Efficiency software engineer who was embedded at the Department of Veterans Affairs, said. “Working at DOGE felt like pushing a boulder up a mountain, and it’ll just fall back down if the work doesn’t continue.”

Much of the agency’s success had been tied to Musk’s private-sector influence and the enthusiasm he brought from Silicon Valley. Many DOGE employees were recruited from Musk’s companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and the Boring Company.

With Musk’s departure, they now face a chasm in leadership. Steve Davis, DOGE’s de facto chief of operations, has also exited the project.

Recently, Anthony Armstrong, another Musk ally who joined him, also left the initiative. His April departure was confirmed by the Office of Personnel Management.

No room to straddle the fence

DOGE’s backers in Congress, many of whom were initially aligned with Musk, are now being forced to choose sides. Several Republican lawmakers remain publicly committed to the DOGE mission, although their tone fails to reflect that.

“It seems to me Elon thought he was co-president, and everyone except Elon knew that would never happen. Now, his feelings seem hurt.” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.) said.

“My heart aches,” Rep. Aaron Bean (R., Fla.) told reporters. “You see two friends fighting, and it’s sad that it escalated so quickly.” He expressed hope that reconciliation might be possible and joked that a shared Diet Coke, which is Trump’s drink of choice, might patch things up.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought is working to preserve what remains of the DOGE’s agenda. He is currently conducting a $9.4B rescissions package through Congress. The proposal would lock in $8.3B in foreign aid cuts and other spending reductions attributed to DOGE.

Vought said in congressional testimony this week that “cabinet agencies that are in charge of the DOGE consultants that work for them are fundamentally in control of DOGE.”

James Fishback, who was an early DOGE advocate and a Florida investment manager, publicly distanced himself from Musk and sided with Trump. “Elon’s behavior is downright disturbing,” Fishback said, urging Musk to apologize.

Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who has long criticized Musk, also piled on the tech giant this week. On his War Room Live show, Bannon declared the agency a failure. “Musk promised a trillion dollars in cuts in waste, fraud, and abuse,” Bannon said. “We’ve seen barely a fraction of that, and now he’s out. It’s a farce.”

Despite the chaos, the Trump administration continues to boast of DOGE’s record. The White House claims the department has saved the federal government $180B through job cuts, canceled contracts, and asset sales.

However, independent budget analysts are critical of those figures, arguing that the math behind the savings is opaque and overly optimistic.

“There’s a difference between claimed savings and realized savings,” one budget analyst noted anonymously. “We don’t yet know how much of what DOGE did is sustainable.”

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